Marauding down the right with two City defenders to beat, she evaded one tackle, rounded the next and with great composure doubled the lead to put the tie to bed with eight minutes to play

Cambridge United manager Kevin Hoover was delighted that Coupar, who has not been getting the minutes she would have liked this season, took her chance on the big stage in the 2-0 win.

“It was quite personal for Mollie,” he said. “I’m so pleased for her because she’s been in and out of the development squad, but we kept telling her to trust us and it’s probably the beginning of something special for her today.”

The controversy over the past two weeks has created some terrific theatre, raising the profile of both sides to national interest.

And Hoover was full of pride about the way his players have handled the situation.

“They’ve conducted themselves really well,” he said.

“They’ve kept off social media and held their tongues and they’re a credit to the club.

“It’s galvanized them (the criticism to replay the game), it’s helped us as a team. I can’t praise them enough and I am really proud of them.”

Rapley was left to bemoan City’s performance rather than the scoreline and claimed it was difficult having to play the fixture again after being on such a high following the previous encounter.

“It was always going to be a tough game coming here especially with the game played a couple weeks ago and the euphoria after winning that,” he said.

“But my overall feeling is disappointment because I don’t think we performed anywhere near what we can.

The target now for City, who were suffering their first loss of the season, is to focus on the league and the possibility of playing United next season if the Lilywhites gets promoted.

“Let’s hope so,” said Rapley. “We’ve got a week off so we’ll have a bit of a rest but we’ve had a fantastic run of form, lots of wins, lots of good performances and lots of goals, so we’ll try and get back to it a week on Sunday.”

The U’s now face a trip to FA Women’s National League, Southern Premier Division side Oxford United in round two on Sunday (December 2).